As analytical as Lacey could be, it surprised some people that she had decided to write her thesis on the elusive Bigfoot. For months now, Lacey had been interviewing people claiming to have had encounters with the mysterious creature. She had logged hours of videotape and more hours transcribing. More recently she had moved to the next phase of her thesis, actually trying to photograph an encounter herself. At first she had taken some of her student loan money to buy scouts and guides to help her through the reclusive areas where creatures had been seen before. Quickly though, Lacey ran out of money for that kind of assistance and soon began going out on her own to photograph the creature.
Lacey believed with everything in her being that Bigfoot existed. He went by many names depending on the territory. Sometimes it was called Sasquatch, Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. The people she interviewed had been average people. Not crazies or attention seekers. Just everyday people who had been scared out of their minds. Their stories shared such similarities, that it was hard to discount them.
She had herself, she believed, heard the sounds of the creature in the night, when she camped out with the scouts, hoping for a sighting. It had been terrifying, but she had to finish her thesis and nothing would deter her now. Lacey would soon be out of funds and have to get a full-time job to pay her bills. There wouldn't be enough hours in the day to conduct her research at that point. She knew that she must get her evidence, and she must get it soon. Lacey planned to wait by a stream in hopes of seeing the mythical beast. She would head back with plenty of time to make it to her car before nightfall. Lacey was a brave woman, but she was not stupid.
As the warm sun hit her back, filtering through the leaves, she began to be drowsy. The woods were devoid of the usual noises right now, and that was the only thing that kept her from falling asleep. There was an unusual stillness at this moment. She held her breath, listening as well as her human ears would allow. After several minutes of listening to her own heart thump in her chest, Lacey relaxed. The process had left her even drowsier. Or perhaps it was her body's way of dealing with fear, to lull her to sleep. She had just begun to dream about doughnuts. She never knew why, of all things, she dreamed of doughnuts, but she supposed it was the carb and sugar craving drives in her that would have overtaken her, had she not always kept so busy.
Lacey awoke to a sound of twigs snapping. Uncertain that she had indeed heard that, she sat up quickly and looked around. She heard another crack and she saw a huge figure emerge through the brush and kneel near the stream just down the hill from her. Fumbling with her camera, she gasped to see the mass of tan and rust fur begin to drink from the flowing water, the soles of its hind feet on display to her. They were enormous, calloused, and stained the color of the local earth, but they were not unhumanlike, if you discounted the fact that they were surrounded by fur that hung maybe a foot in length from the appendage.
The creature must have heard her, because it looked up. Its eyes met hers. They were brown and intelligent, peering out from the enormous furry head. They too, were not inhuman looking. His face, in fact, looked quite human, if you could imagine a human covered in foot long shag. His hair looked very silky and almost floated when he had lifted his face.
Lacey began to justify her experience to herself by comparing it to the others she had recorded. She sniffed the air, but no smell that was noticeable to her was perceptible. The creature lifted an arm, revealing a humanlike palm as his coat shifted off of it. He raised it over his head, as if to wave a greeting.
"Shit!" Lacey said aloud to herself. Obviously this was someone in a costume set out to play a prank on her. She had been careful not to alert locals in the area as to her study near this particular site. Perhaps one of the guides from an earlier excursion, or even one of her college friends had decided to take it upon themselves to play a joke on her.
The creature now stood up. Just as Lacey was getting ready to throw a pine cone at her prankster, she gasped again in awe. The creature must be standing over 9 feet tall! If this was a costume, someone was mastering its enormity well. The creature was now walking up the embankment to her. She was both angry and frightened as she was still unsure if this "Bigfoot" was real or not.
Lacey stood up quickly as the creature took its last steps towards her. As it neared it was harder to believe that it was a costume. It was breathing and fully articulated and its face was surely no mask. Here she was, face to face . . . or rather face to abdomen, with Bigfoot!
"Hello." The creature said to her in a deep human voice.
"Hhhhhhuuuuhhhh Hi!" Lacey stuttered back, nearly tripping as she took a step backward.
The creature reached out as if to catch her fall, but then withdrew his arm when he saw she had steadied herself, as if not to frighten her. "I won't harm you," the creature stated "please do not faint and do not be afraid."
"I'm I uhhhmmmm am not ahhhh uhhhh afraid." The words were horribly hard to extract from her brain and form into sentences.
"You came looking for me?" the creature asked. Lacey swore his tone almost had a teasing quality, as it came down from his 9 foot frame.
"Yes." she said, trying to regain her composure and resume some kind of normal breathing. "Yes I did."
"Why are you so interested in finding me?" asked the creature with a tone of genuine interest.
"I'm I'm doing a errr ummmm, my thesis, it's about, ummmm . . ." she trailed off, not knowing what the politically correct term for a creature of his kind was.